How fast time flies when I have the pleasure of meeting new startup companies, and enjoying my hobby of acquiring, sharing and selling historical treasures.

This past year has given me the opportunity to meet some great entrepreneurs and their startup endeavors that are real American companies now. One that comes to mind is how much I enjoyed speaking to Bill Lott, about his http://hoursforequity.com startup created to help startups find talent and grow their company by offering equity.

Then I began the quest of selling vast amounts of acquired historical treasures. Troves of antique lace, historical books and now the beginning of mass amounts of silent film stills, autographs and amazing ephemera. ALL of the silent film, (some are here: http://patddixon.com/silent-film/ ) books (some here:http://patddixon.com/book-list/ ) and other antiquities listed in the pages of this site will all be for sale. If you find something you want, let me know. I will post a link to ebay in the coming days as I start to upload it. There are 1000s of never before seen movie stills so it will take time.

I have watched startups fail when they could have listened and learned, and I have seen startups succeed because they listen and learn. The right people mean everything. So do the right words, moves and instincts.

It’s about rarities to me, startups that creative ingenuity has spawned, historical treasures that are one of a kind and should not be lost to time; these go hand in hand.

This coming year is bringing more exciting startup stories that I am looking forward to sharing with you all. I have a pipeline of startups waiting to chat and share their story with the world, so stay tuned. Join me for another fantastic year of looking back deep into history, and looking forward further than we imagine to new things!

Creating a library of books is a lifetime endeavor. It feels the same when cataloging books, authors, publishers and dates. I decided to put the list up pre-auction as so many of you have asked to view it for fun. I am happy to add more photos if you would like to see something, just ask! These are 95% or more, first editions and all are hardcover. The list is so large that I gave it it’s own page tab at the top of this site, Enjoy! http://patddixon.com/book-list/

In light of President’s Day, I would like to share a story and a rare newspaper involving the days of President Lincoln.

The civil war was nearing an end, the south was struggling for supplies, and the northern army was told to take the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The south had a printing press, but was running out of paper. J.M Swords felt that it was necessary to give a public bashing to the north, in support of his beloved confederacy. So he prepared the print for the 1863 edition of The Vicksburg Daily Citizen, on the only paper he had left, wallpaper.

This paper is so famous that it has been reprinted thousands of times, and originals are extremely rare. So rare, in fact, that the Library of Congress has adopted special criteria for this paper to be authenticated. This paper, seen here, is an original. It is another stroke of luck found in an old box of newspapers given to me.

What makes this paper so amazing is that the south never printed the paper, the north invaded and took the area, added a very famous “note” to the bottom of the paper, bashing the south, then the north printed it.

As a first post on this blog, I should assume that everyone is looking for something really catchy, outside the realm of anything they have read before, in order for them to decide to follow and engage with my blog. Well, that’s not gonna happen…today. But it will happen. And big.

Everything I post will come from all sorts of engaging arenas, such as, startups, investments, technology, media, other high profile journalists and special guests in many areas of expertise. You might find photography here, or maybe a great author with a new book. You might see a post from a venture capitalist about an exciting startup company. Something posted could be about video conferencing, social ecommerce or jello. If pictures of your dog or cat show up, don’t blame me. If you have a really good video, it can be submitted for posting.

You can help with the categories that are listed here…be sure to ask for what you want to see, and maybe, you could appear as a guest poster!